


In your eyes there was an honesty no lies but you weren't free

by cutebutpsyco



Series: Ironstrange Bingo 2019 Fills [17]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Butler Stephen Strange, Butlers, Implied/Reference Substances and Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, IronStrange Bingo 2019, M/M, Not Beta Read, Pre-Canon, Stephen Strange is British, Younger characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 03:51:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18490762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: IRONSTRANGE BINGO. FILL: "SIR" ||Edwin Jarvis rolled his eyes to the ceiling, his smile not less bright than ever. “You’ll always need a babysitter, sir.”“That’s rude!” Tony commented, bringing a glass of whiskey to his mouth and taking a long sip of the amber liquid. “Not completely wrong, but rude.”





	In your eyes there was an honesty no lies but you weren't free

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to Fluffypanda! This is me trying to write a butler!AU and I don't even know.  
> Tony is 23 in this one, while Stephen is 21. Jarvis is alive and kicking asses, as well as Ana and they are going to retire because they deserve it. Stephen had known Edwin after his accident while in England and Jarvis offered him his old job. 
> 
> As always, nothing belongs to me. Title from Bang!Bang! by Iwan Rheon. Not beta read.

Tony Stark was the man who lived in the future, he had always been, maybe there was no going back from that definition. Probably he knew it was something that he made up because it gave him a purpose, something that could bring him to think about something different than the delusion his father always told him he was. 

But the truth that lied under that lie was that Tony Stark hated the changes of which he wasn’t in control. Recreating the world, thinking about new and more innovative ways in which it could progress, were something he was comfortable with because it could depend on him. The world around him, though, that was something that changed and couldn’t be controlled. 

“Come on, J,” He said, looking at the man who had always been more a father for him than anyone else related to Tony. “You know I don’t need a babysitter anymore, you an Ana can stay there, though.”

Edwin Jarvis rolled his eyes to the ceiling, his smile not less bright than ever. “You’ll always need a babysitter, sir.”

“That’s rude!” Tony commented, bringing a glass of whiskey to his mouth and taking a long sip of the amber liquid. “Not completely wrong, but rude.” 

Twenty-three years and the only heir of the Starks fortune, Tony could really have everything he wanted to from his life, though he was pretty sure that the only things he needed were good alcohol and a pretty girl to keep his bed warm. Jarvis and his wife Ana had always been the only people capable of make him doing anything different from closing himself in a lab to drinking himself numb while his father was around. His mom was great, but sometimes she seemed to forget that she had a son in their house, too occupied in taking care of other children. Tony couldn’t blame her, not for real, but Maria Stark was loving and absent enough not to realize that her son took a path from which very likely there was just an extremely impervious way back. 

And then there were the Jarvises and Aunt Peggy. The only real family Tony could think of, and now Edwin and Ana were moving, after that the butler resigned his dimissions. Tony couldn’t deny that, to the man, but let him walk away was hard. He tried to convince him to stay at the Starks’ mansion, not as a worker, but as a guest, but the man pointed out that he would never be just one. After all the years spent working for Howard and Tony, he simply couldn’t stop being a butler in that building, didn’t matter how much he would have tried. 

“And what’s even ruder is that you are abandoning me,” He continued, but it was clear that Stark was joking. “Despite you know how much I need you, you are leaving, and I’ll be there having to deal with some random British guy who doesn’t know what I need.”

Edwin laughed, at that, seating at the opposite side of the table. “That’s why I’m still here leaving my wife alone choosing furniture. To be sure that this random British guy knows how and when ignoring you.”

“And I raise my glass to this,” Tony commented, without letting his eyes stop to somewhere in particular, just like if he was waiting for the young butler to appear out of nowhere. “Where is he, anyway?”

“Stephen should be there in ten minutes,” Jarvis answered. 

“Stephen…” Tony repeated, and he was more than everything trying the name on his tongue. He had no idea how Jarvis found the man. And the truth was that he didn’t care either. He was sure that he was going to hate him just because he wasn’t Jarvis himself, even if he knew that it wasn’t the best way to treat with people. 

And when the doorbell rang, he had completely lost every kind of interest he could have had for the man who was going to be his butler from now on. Maybe of pure habit, Jarvis got up and walked to reach the door, letting it opened and, a moment later, he heard the man walking the newcomer toward the main hall. 

The moment Jarvis and the other man walked into the room, though, Tony felt his eyes widening. The new butler was young, possibly younger than he was, pitch-black hair and high-cheekbones, he was high and lean, with eyes of impossible colour. 

“Are we sure he doesn’t need a babysitter?” Tony asked, looking at the young man. “J, how old is he?”

“I’m twenty-one,” Stephen answered, and it was clear that he didn’t òlike that Tony wasn’t addressing directly at him. 

“See? He’s a kid?” Tony answered, looking again at the man in front of him. Stark could feel the man rolling his eyes, but it was hard for him to turn the eyes away from the younger man. There was something interesting, in Stephen’s eyes, even if he wasn’t going to admit it. 

“I’m sure I’m not as much as a child as you are, Stark,” He answered and, the point was, Howard Stark would have fired whoever dared to say so much, but Tony wasn’t his father, and he totally liked the wit remark coming from someone who was supposedly working for him.

Tony decided he liked the man. “Oh, you hurt me,” he said, finally standing from the chair and walking toward this Stephen guy. “And, tell me, how does someone like you ended up to be a butler. I mean, J here has a lot of experience and he pretty much was my father’s best friend, why should I trust you, kiddo?”

For a beat of the eyes, something that seemed to be sadness crossed Stephen’s eyes, then he simply scoffed whatever it was off and focused back on Tony. “Because you trust Edwin, and he trusts me enough with you. Or maybe he knows I’ll kill you, but I’m sure that, if this is the case, just two of us will ever know.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

\--

Turned out that, if Tony didn’t ask him to bring him breakfast or to cook something, Stephen was a perfect butler. He was intelligent, maybe a little bit too much a bookworm for Tony’s liking - and Stark could see why Jarvis chose him -, and funny. Stephen was intelligent, had a wonderful memory and Tony realized that yes, parties, alcohol, drugs and girls were funny, but staying at home with Stephen was relaxing.

He didn’t really need a butler either, he lived alone in a huge house, and Stephen’s work was mostly coordinating the rest of the house workers and shake him off the bed at a decent time, especially when he had some important meeting with the board or with Obie. Who, apparently, Stephen didn’t like even in the slightest. 

That day, Tony was finishing his newest AI - DUM-E and Butterfingers started to feel lonely - in his mother’s library while Stephen was reading something. Tony couldn’t really care about what the other man liked, but he noticed that he was still wearing the white gloves and that was surprising. If Tony had to think about the last times he paid attention to Stephen’s hands, that was beautiful, with long fingers made to play the piano, he always wore his gloves. Even if it was pointless. 

“You can take them off,” Tony said, gaining an interrogative _hmmm?_ as a response. “The gloves - he explained - it’s not like you really need them anyway and it’s better for turning the pages.” 

Stephen had been his butler for almost a year, by now, and while he had seen him at his lowest, and still he was there. It was weird, he considered Jarvis as a father, for him, and his only friend was in the Army so he was sure he would have been lonely. He wasn’t, and he had to thank Stephen, for that. Stephen, who was always all professionalism, Stephen who never spoke about his past, or his life in England, or anything, but who was always ready to listen to him. Stephen, the only person with whom he spent his last birthday and Thanksgiving. 

Stephen, with whom, maybe, Tony was starting to fall in love. And who answered to him after what seemed to be an eternity, with a small voice: “I know.”

“Steph, you okay?” Stark immediately asked, jumping up from the table and reaching the other man. 

“Yes, now if you want to excuse me, Sir, I’d better let the kitchen staff your preference for the dinner.” And the point was, Stephen had been pretty clear about not calling him “Sir” since the first moment.

“Cut the bullshit,” he said. “What’s wrong?” 

Stephen’s eyes ran on his feet, but he stayed silent. Luckily, Tony was good to guess what upset people, maybe because he spent a good time of his life trying to understand them. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to step any boundary there,” He said, raising his hands so that the other man could see they were empty. “I just… It’s fine, I’m sorry, ok?”

He didn’t even know what he did wrong, this time, but it didn’t matter. He wouldn’t again because he didn’t want to see that suffering expression on Stephen’s face anymore. And Stark did that enough times to know that Strange was starting to bottle up. He wished he had been sober enough to know the man better, during the past year. 

And then, after an eternity, Stephen took off one of his gloves, showing the beautiful hand underneath, crisscrossed by long and pale scars. He took a deep breath and then spoke: “My dream was to become a surgeon, but after a bad accident I had back in England I couldn’t anymore. Edwin helped me, and I like this work just fine, but looking at my hands…”

He didn’t finish the sentence, it wasn’t necessary. Tony knew something about scars and self-loathe and that was what he could see on Stephen’s face. Maybe Stark’s were more hidden than the ones crossing Strange’s pale skin, but they were there, deep buried in his heart. Tony took his exposed hand and hold it between his. “You don’t have to, Sir.”

“I thought you wouldn't call me Sir,” Tony said, ignoring the soft protest. It was clear from the smile that was crossing the other’s lips that he liked that. 

“I should start to,” Stephen said. “If I’d done my work instead of losing my time in the library…”

“I would have asked you to if this was what I wanted. I enjoy your company, Stephen. And correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s the same for you.” 

Stephen nodded, and while Tony knew it probably wasn’t the same way - he was more than sure that Stephen didn’t have any kind of crush on him - that was enough, for that day. “So, we are going to celebrate, tonight, and you can’t say no. Apparently, Forbes thinks I’m one of the greatest 30 under 30 and I want to prove them they are right. Pick something nice for yourself.”

“Yes, Sir” Stephen whispered, though Tony heard him even if he was already on his way down the hallway. And Stark wondered if he would have said the same in bed. That very same night, Tony was the one calling Stephen sir, but he wasn’t going to complain.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are the air I breathe and the reason why I write, so make ur girl happy.
> 
>  **wanna say 'hi'? do you have a prompt for me?** find me on [tumblr](https://ironstrange-is-the-endgame.tumblr.com/).  
> find my entire ironstrange bingo card on [dreamwidth](https://myrcellabaratheon.dreamwidth.org/3827.html) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/511160).


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